Full of magic, but even more heart.
An unlikely trio sets out on an epic quest to defeat an ancient evil in O’Neill’s debut.
Jenny Greenteeth isn’t a hag, thank you very much, she’s a Jenny! Jennies are water-dwelling magical creatures who all have green skin; long, sharp teeth; and the name “Jenny Greenteeth.” Our Jenny lives in the lake at Chipping Appleby and is quite content keeping her lake neat, eating small creatures, and keeping to herself. But when Temperance Crump is tossed into the lake, sentenced to death for being a witch, Jenny decides to rescue her rather than eat her. Jenny takes Temperance to a hidden cave where she dries out and, after getting over her alarm at meeting a fae creature, tells Jenny her story. Temperance was living happily as the village “cunning woman” when a new parson came to town. This parson whipped up witch fever in the townspeople, and it didn’t take much for them to chain her up and toss her in the lake for her “crimes.” Jenny, who has a daughter of her own (“Little Jenny,” of course), sympathizes with Temperance’s despair at being separated from her husband and two small children and offers to help her cast a spell that will make the whole village forget she was ever a witch, much less executed for her craft. A hobgoblin named Brackus helps Jenny and Temperance find what they need for the spell, but when Temperance attempts to cast it, they learn that the new parson is actually an ancient evil, the Erl King, who could threaten all the magical and mortal creatures of Great Britain. The three of them set off on a noble quest to defeat the Erl King, and on their way, they meet all manner of enchanting and magical creatures and places. But best of all, O’Neill’s story of friendship, family, and perseverance is so sweetly written that even her finely drawn fairy world and excellent plotting take a backseat to the growing bonds among her unlikely heroes.
Full of magic, but even more heart.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780316584241
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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